What kept me sane during lockdown?

I revisited origami During lockdown. And initially..... I went berserk. When you have got no work to do, You have to have something to keep your hands (but more importantly, mind) busy... and especially if you are one of those people whose mind keep flitting from one thing to other and you get bored rather easily, After 2-3 movies series down... I was left with the same existential question again, Who do I do?
 
So, I again turned to origami. I guess this is one of those hobbies which you can pick up whenever you want and wherever you have left it. And the fact that you only need a paper to begin with (later on, you can down the rabbit hole of exquisite papers, sizes, designs, textures, etc.) It's the perfect way to get going when you are in total lockdown to no access to any non-essential supplies, whatsoever.
 
I find this particularly suitable for me since its an art which doesn’t require you have an excellent freehand. Here having a rigid hand helps (in many branches of origami). It’s just like doing an experiment … you must be precise to follow the steps to get the perfect result you want. And so, what better will suit a wet-lab scientist!
 
This time, I turned my focus on a particular branch of origami called ‘tessellations’. Tessellations are the arrangement of a single design unit repeated over and over to give rise to a beautiful picture. I guess this is what you call ‘looking at the big picture’. And the best thing about them? They look so different from every angle. They are different from the front and different from the back. And you can get a whole new perspective of that piece if they are back-lit (again, both front and back – two different patterns there). If you want, you can make a 3D pattern.
 
In fact, I wanted to make those for a long time but I found the grid making process intimidating. So, I stuck with making single 3-4 level hydrangeas only as I thought they were the easiest one (I later collapsed multiple hydrangeas – they are so time-consuming).
 
Anyhow, I found this one video on YouTube about how to fold a herringbone tessellation. It seemed easy so I gave it a try. And it was really that easy! (I later learned it belongs to another class of origami called ‘corrugations’). This marked a watershed moment, if I may say so, in my journey to fold tessellations after tessellations.
 
Eric Gjerde’s book “origami tessellations” is kind of THE book you should start with, He has catapulted the branch into the limelight. Tessellations were being folded way before him, but they were rarely taught. Most of the individuals were self-taught. And when starting from scratch, I can understand it is a really hard road. But he brought the book and changed something. NO, you have an easy to follow guide and photo diagrams. I really could not thank him enough for making it easy for me.
 
As you progress, you start getting bored of folding the same patterns start looking for something new. I did the same too. I found a ton of material. Lydia Diard has an amazing website with so many diagrams and photo tutorials. And so does the book from Ilan Garibi. Easy to fold diagrams and mesmerising to look at products. And is the happy folding channel on YouTube by Sarah Adams.
 
But these kinds of diagrams are only so much and hard to come by. I came across the blog (I will add the link here later) where he suggested the best for starters to fold new patterns is to start reverse-engineering the pattern by others. When you are a beginner, this might be unnerving. But as you gain bits and pieces of experience, you kind of start seeing through the patterns, and it becomes easy. It opened a new door for me as there was a whole new world of patterns that I wanted to fold. I basically scoured Flickr (and later Instagram) in search of new patterns that I could fold. Patterns without offset creases were easy to reverse engineer.
 
I also ventured into the other branches meanwhile. I tried making flowers because basically, they follow the same principle. Some animals(I realised wet-folding is not my thing …I suck at it) and those cute butterflies. I tried modular also, earlier I was skeptical because they require so much of paper folding in the same way. But those are rewarding in their way too.
 
And then I kind of went crazy. I got colours, to get a vibrant pattern in my pictures. I got big papers that would allow me to fold larger grids comfortably(Oh, I wish I could fold something using unryu, that paper looks so exotic). Grid folding requires patience (A virtue to which I am not particularly privy to). But I made it. And It did it again, and again ( and finished harry potter and LOTR while at it). For the first time since long, I felt I may have done something good. Yeah, compliments from strangers on Instagram and from known ones on WhatsApp helped too.
 
In fact, origami helped me this time in more ways than I could have envisioned. I found these work to beautiful in my own sense. And looking at them made me happy. So, I thought I should share them with others on the off chance that it may make them happy too. I took that chance. And I got back on WhatsApp to share these people who know me. But it also helped me to get connected with people with whom I had lost contact a long time ago. That helped a bit. My sister persuaded me to open Instagram to showcase this work to people who might be interested in it. The comments there showed me (even if you call the hyped up) that what I consider commonplace is not that easy. The improvement in my photography skills and editing is what I will consider a bonus of this project.
 
You stand on the shoulder of giants. Any new creation has roots in the knowledge and skills you have gathered over time. And this is what happened. I also created some designs on my own. They are simple, so no doubt someone must have created them before and they might have a name. I stumbled upon them purely on my own. So, I consider them my own. Now that I have stopped making anymore of them (don't know why, I have pre-creased grids just lying there but to fold them... I have hit a block). So until I start again, here they are…. What I consider the best representatives of my works. They should have a permanent home at this blog too..... because why should social networks have all the fun?